Societal Quality: Towards a way of measuring the quality of society

1. Societal Quality: Towards a way of measuring the quality of society Professor Claire Wallace Professor Pamela Abbott

2. Quality of Life • Measured by: life satisfaction (how individual feel about their life – how generally satisfied (cognitive) or happiness (emotional) dimension. • Can use objective or subjective indicators • Way of looking beyond GDP as measure of progress BUT • Mainly derives from psychological/economic perspectives – what about sociological ones? How can we understand the quality of society? • Problem with this approach is that it results in a list of indicators with no criteria for choosing one or the other • Generally a-theoretical • As societies become more affluent factors other than economic circumstances tend to become more important • Growth of importance of psychological factors, seeing the individual as the instrument of life quality. Link to neo-liberal philosophy.

4. Social Context • How can we apply quality of life to social context – the quality of society? • How can we make it relevant for social policy? • Which issues should we focus on and why?

5. Quality of Society • Understanding of collective as well individual dimensions • Understanding of agency and structure • Understanding of social integration and system integration • Understanding of changing social world – mobility, digital communications etc. • Understanding of levels of society – family, community, network, national society, Europe etc • Understanding of different positions of social groups • Understanding of social in relation to economic/psychological • Cultural dimensions? Might we find that e.g. Family is more important in some cultures than others and different meaning what family is? • Social and other policy dimensions need to be built in.

7. Societal Quality • Economic security – having adequate resources across the life course to enjoy a decent standard of living • Social cohesion – shared norms values and trust • Social integration – inclusion in networks, having support, participating in society • Empowerment – objective conditions exist and individuals have ability to make use of the available opportunities (Sen and Nussbaum). Specifies the conditions for an inclusive, socially cohesive society that empowers citizens with sufficient economic resources to sustain themselves Specifies the conditions for well-being and the conditions for building and sustaining societies that ensure the well-being of their members.

9. Social Quality

10. From Quality of Life to Societal Quality • Dependent variable: life satisfaction • Each set of variables are chosen to measure underlying concept • Way of selecting variables • Sociological - measures social context of everyday life (not just individual) • Provides the ‘social space’ for social action and social development

11. Applied in: • EQLS Survey 2003 and 2007 to see if it worked for both years • Respondents: approx 1000 per country • Regression model in blocks of indicators for each quadrant with life satisfaction as dependent variable • Applied to parents developing a social quality index across all the different fields • Applied to comparison of Eastern and Western Europe – what factors are important in these different social contexts • Applied in Rwanda and former Soviet Union – very different social and cultural contexts but had also very high explanatory power

12. Differences over countries and time • Worked with countries added as dummies (Sweden as control) • Similar variables were significant over time, including the most important ones • Countries reflected life satisfaction differences, but more nuanced.

13. Conclusions • Country differences important for social quality and similar to quality of life – but we have a better understanding of WHY • Shows interaction of different factors for measuring the quality of society • Very high explanatory power with relatively few variables • Can be replicated with most standard surveys • Indicators are theoretically linked to go beyond lists of individual indicators • Could be extended by looking at quadrants separately, by looking at countries separately, but drawing up an index or by finding better dependent variable of well being. • Could include objective measures too and this is what we are now working on. • Indicates areas where social policy might improve quality of life.

14. What still needs to be done • Better indicator of social well being (see ESS survey) • Create index? • Latent structure analysis to see how different quadrants cohere • Look at policy context • Look at social groups in more detail • Look at levels of analysis (local, national etc.) and need to distinguish individual from regional results • Need for qualitative analysis • Need for understanding of digital transformations

16. Other approaches in Scotland • Link to National Performance Framework: Scotland Performs (wealthier and fairer;safer and stronger;smarter;greener;healthier) 45 indicators • Oxfam Scotland Humankind Index (18 weighted indicators based on interviews and focus groups with communities) • Carnegie Trust focus on 8 case studies and how wellbeing can be built into policies